Glover: Funny or Die CEO spearheads offline expansion, Turner deal

Comedy Impact Report 2012: Online - Dick Glover

Once a clearing house for viral comedy videos, Funny or Die has become the “place to be seen” by a host of celebs, according to CEO Dick Glover. This year all-time traffic highs for the site, luring 19.2 million unique users in October, up 60% from last year.

Per Glover, this is just the start for the digital studio: “We are using the model we established online for producing highly creative and efficient content and moving it into traditional media,” he says, pointing to off-net productions that include “Funny or Die’s Billy on the Street” for Fuse and six other shows in development. The brand also backed its first feature, “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie,” and has four more low-cost pics in development.

Its biggest move has been into branded entertainment, creating content for such products as Pepsi, Redbull and Xbox. “There is a myth that young people hate advertising, but if you can make it relevant and cool to them, they love it,” Glover says.

Its position was enough to lure Turner Broadcasting, which in May took a 10% stake in the company that makes Turner’s digital sales force the exclusive seller of advertising opportunities with Funny or Die.